Sarcophagus

For other uses, seeSarcophagus (disambiguation).

Romansarcophagus with the myth ofMedea,c. 140–150 AD,from Rome, exhibited in theAntikensammlung Berlin(Berlin)

Roman sarcophagus withApollo,Minervaand theMuses,c. 200 AD,fromVia Appia,exhibited in the Antikensammlung Berlin

TheGothicsarcophagi of Don Àlvar Rodrigo de Cabrera, count ofUrgelland his wife Cecília ofFoix,c. 1300–1350,made of limestone, traces of paint, exhibited in theMetropolitan Museum of Art(New York City)

The graves of EmperorPedro I of Brazil(also King of Portugal as Pedro IV) and his second wifeAmélie(left) in theMonument to the Independence of Brazil.The grave of the King-Emperor's first wife,Maria Leopoldina,is on the opposite side, facing his grave.

Grave ofCatharina Månsdotter,theQueen of Sweden,inTurku CathedralinTurku,Finland

Asarcophagus(pl.:sarcophagiorsarcophaguses) is acoffin,most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The wordsarcophaguscomes from theGreekσάρξsarxmeaning "flesh", andφαγεῖνphageinmeaning "to eat"; hencesarcophagusmeans "flesh-eating", from the phraselithos sarkophagos(λίθοςσαρκοφάγος), "flesh-eating stone". The word also came to refer to a particular kind oflimestonethat was thought to rapidly facilitate thedecompositionof the flesh of corpses contained within it due to the chemical properties of the limestone itself.

History of the sarcophagus

Sarcophagi were most often designed to remain above ground.The earliest stone sarcophagi were used by Egyptian pharaohs of the 3rd dynasty, which reigned from about 2686 to 2613 B.C.

TheHagia Triada sarcophagusis a stone sarcophagus elaborately painted infresco;one style of later Ancient Greek sarcophagus in painted pottery is seen inKlazomenian sarcophagi,produced around the Ionian Greek city ofKlazomenai,where most examples were found, between 550 BC (Late Archaic) and 470 BC. They are made of coarse clay in shades of brown to pink. Added to the basin-like main sarcophagus is a broad, rectangular frame, often covered with a white slip and then painted. The hugeLycianTomb of Payava,now in theBritish Museum,is a royal tomb monument of about 360 BC designed for an open-air placing, a grand example of a common Lycian style.

Reliefon a Roman sarcophagus, which represents the triumph ofDionysos,c. 260–270 AD,marble, exhibited in theMetropolitan Museum of Art(New York City)

Ancient Roman sarcophagi—sometimes metal or plaster as well aslimestone—were popular from about the reign ofTrajan,and often elaborately carved, until the earlyChristian burialpreference for interment underground, often in a limestonesepulchre,led to their falling out of favor.However, there are many importantEarly Christian sarcophagifrom the 3rd to 4th centuries. Most Roman examples were designed to be placed against a wall and are decorated on three sides only. Sarcophagi continued to be used in Christian Europe for important figures, especially rulers and leading church figures, and by theHigh Middle Agesoften had a recumbenttomb effigylying on the lid. More plain sarcophagi were placed in crypts. The most famous examples include theHabsburgImperial CryptinVienna,Austria. The term tends to be less often used to describe Medieval, Renaissance, and later examples.

In theearly modern period,lack of space tended to make sarcophagi impractical in churches, but chest tombs or false sarcophagi, empty and usually bottomless cases placed over an underground burial, became popular in outside locations such as cemeteries and churchyards, especially in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, where memorials were mostly not highly decorated and the extra cost of a false sarcophagus over a headstone acted as an indication of social status.

United States of America

Warner Tomb inLaurel Hill Cemetery(Philadelphia,Pennsylvania)

Sarcophagi, usually "false", made a return to the cemeteries of America during the last quarter of the 19th century, at which time, according to a New York company which built sarcophagi, "it was decidedly the most prevalent of all memorials in our cemeteries".They continued to be popular into the 1950s, at which time the popularity of flat memorials (making for easier grounds maintenance) made them obsolete. Nonetheless, a 1952 catalog from the memorial industry still included eight pages of them, broken down intoGeorgianandClassicaldetail, aGothicandRenaissanceadaptation, and aModernvariant.The image shows sarcophagi from the late 19th century located inLaurel Hill CemeteryinPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania.The one in the back, the Warner Monument created byAlexander Milne Calder(1879), features the spirit or soul of the deceased being released.

Asia

In theMekong Deltain southwesternVietnam,it is common for families to inter their members in sarcophagi near their homes, thus allowing ready access for visits as a part of the indigenous tradition ofancestor worship.

InSulawesi,Indonesia,warugaare a traditional form of sarcophagus.

India

Nearly 140 years after British archaeologistAlexander Reaunearthed a sarcophagus from the hillocks of Pallavaram in Tamil Nadu, an identical artifact dating back by more than 2,000 years has been discovered in the same locality.

Spain

PhoenicianandPaleochristiansarcophagi have been found in theIberian Peninsula.

See also

• Crypt
• Mausoleum
• Ossuary

Bibliography

• Mont Allen, "Sarcophagus", inThe Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome,edited by Michael Gagarin, vol. 6, p. 214–218 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
• Robert Manuel Cook,Clazomenian Sarcophagi(Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1981).
• R. R. R. Smith,Sculptured for Eternity: Treasures of Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Art from Istanbul Archaeological Museum(Istanbul: Ertuǧ and Kocabıyık, 2001).
• Paul Zanker and Björn C. Ewald,Living with Myths: The Imagery of Roman Sarcophagi(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

External links

• Egyptian sarcophagi
• sarcophagi in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum
• Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)."Sarcophagus".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 209.